USS Newell (DE 322) was an Edsall-class destroyer escort built for the U.S. Navy during World War II. She served in the Atlantic and Pacific Oceans and provided destroyer escort protection against submarine and air attack for Navy vessels and convoys. Post war, she served in various capacities before being finally decommissioned.

Byron Bruce Newell was born on 29 November 1909 in Camp Hill, Alabama. He graduated from the United States Naval Academy on 5 June 1930. During the next decade he completed flight training and served on the USS New Mexico, USS Saratoga, USS Decatur, USS Kanawha and at the Naval Observatory, Washington. D.C. In August 1939 he reported to cargo ship Gold Star, home ported at Guam, before returning to Newport News for fitting out of the aircraft carrier USS Hornet. Soon after the Hornet commissioned 20 October 1941, the Empire of Japan attacked Pearl Harbor plunging the United States into World War II. On the morning of 26 October, during the Battle of the Santa Cruz Islands, a delayed action bomb exploded on the Hornets fantail killing him.

She was laid down 5 April 1943, by the Consolidated Steel Co., Orange, Texas; launched 29 June 1943; sponsored by Mrs. Byron B. Newell, wife of Lt. Comdr. Newell; and commissioned 30 October 1943.

The new destroyer escort got under way 17 November 1943, for shakedown out of Bermuda. Newell then sailed, via Charleston, South Carolina., to Norfolk, Virginia, to train pre-commissioning crews for sister ships of her division. Two weeks, later USS Menges, USS Mosley, Newell, USS Pride, USS Falgout, and USS Lowe had assembled and the first convoy voyage began. The division safely escorted a convoy to Casablanca and back.

Her second transatlantic voyage took Newell to Bizerte. Two days past Gibraltar, during a twilight alert 20 April 1944, German planes hit the convoy with a torpedo attack. At 21:00, five planes were reported about six miles distant dead ahead. Four minutes later a terrific explosion occurred in the center of the convoy. At the same time three planes came in at about 40 feet above the water, cutting between Newell and USS Lansdale (DD-426). All starboard 20 millimeter guns and the 40 millimeter gun opened fire. Three of the 20s and the 40s were hitting the after plane repeatedly and it swerved off to port and probably exploded, as two German aviators were picked up in this area.

Gun number 3 observed planes coming in aft and opened up, immediately followed by the 40 millimeter gun. The planes were driven off to Newell's port.

At 21:14, planes were sighted dead ahead. Guns 1 and 2 opened fire along with the forward 20 millimeter guns, blanketing the incoming planes which turned sharply northward. At 21:18 while Newell was closing the convoy, Lansdale broke in two and sank. Newell and Menges picked up 119 survivors. The ships then searched the area for additional survivors for three hours.

Many members of Newell's crew went over the side to bring on board survivors too weak to swim to the ship.